1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to devices for extinguishing burning materials and more particularly to a device for positively extinguishing cigarettes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, conventional extinguishing of a cigarette in an ash tray involves a crushing action which breaks up and scatters the ashes and burning embers of the cigarette and smothers whatever burning residue remains attached to the cigarette. Such a crushing operation is by no means a positive extinguishing action in that it often requires several individual tampings to achieve a complete extinguishing. Unless care is exercised, complete extinguishing of the cigarette may not be accomplished which, in addition to being a fire hazzard, is a very irritating occurrence with regard to the smell and continuing emission of smoke. This type of extinguishing technique is bad enough in all situations, but can be dangerous when the operator of an automotive vehicle becomes distracted by the attention he must direct to this crushing type of cigarette extinguishing operation.
For those reasons, several attempts have been made to develop devices which are generally referred to as "snubbers". Basically speaking, snubber devices fall into two categories, those which simply restrict the oxygen flow to the burning cigarette end by confining it in a limited oxygen flow enclosure, and those which confine the crushing action within a specific area and simultaneously restrict the oxygen flow.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,764,165 discloses a cigarette snubbing device of the above mentioned first catagory, wherein oxygen flow restriction is the sole means relied on to extinguish a cigarette. This prior art snubbing device includes a body having a bore formed vertically therethrough. The bore is chamfered at its upper end for ease of insertion of the lit end of a cigarette into a passage which is slightly tapered and extends through the body. The snubber of this patent is used in an ash tray the bottom surface of which must be proximate the open bottom end of the passage to restrict the flow of oxygen to the burning tip of the cigarette when it is inserted into the tapered lower bore of the passage. In this type of snubber, the time required to extinguish the cigarette is determined by the amount of oxygen which enters the bottom of the bore through the annular gap between the body and the bottom surface of the ash tray. If that gap is small enough to cause a cigarette to be extinguished within an acceptable time, the passage will be difficult to clean in that a dislodged ash build-up will occur in the passage. On the other hand, if the gap is large enough to facilitate cleaning out of the dislodged ashes, the flow of oxygen will not be reduced sufficiently to produce a satisfactory extinguishing time.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,491,773 discloses a snubber of the above described second catagory, wherein restricted oxygen flow and a crushing action are combined for extinguishing purposes. The structure of this patent includes a body with a cylindrical cigarette receiving bore formed therethrough. The bore is chamfered at its upper end for ease of cigarette insertion and has an annular ledge which circumscribes a reduced diameter opening in the bottom of the body. The main portion of the cylindrical bore although loose is a relatively tight fit with the outside diameter of the cigarette and restricts the oxygen flow to the cigarette and the annular ledge performs limited crushing and tip dislodgement actions. The main action in this particular device which results in extinguishing of the cigarette is the limited crushing and tip dislodgement. The burning embers which are dislodged can continue to burn for a time after falling from the device and this time can be sufficient to reignite cigarettes which were previously extinguished and deposited in the ash tray and can continue to smell and emit smoke.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,748,778 is another cigarette extinguisher of the second catagory discussed above. In this device, the body defines a cup-shaped cavity with an enlarged upper open end with an endless depending sidewall which curves downwardly to a restricted bottom opening passage. The snubbing action of this device is almost entirely a crushing and tip dislodgement operation due to the downwardly curving cup-shaped cavity into which the burning tip of the cigarette is wedgingly inserted.
Although the above described prior art snubbers are an improvement over the conventional crushing operation, they do not entirely eliminate the fire safety hazzard problem, the continued smell and smoke emission problem, and they can dangerously divert the attention of an operator of an automotive vehicle.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved cigarette extinguisher which overcomes some of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.